ML became the emperor, and she became the empress. When there was an assassination for the ML while she was away tying up loose ends, she immediately traveled back to the palace and controlled the courtiers who were planning to overthrow her. She showed her fangs. No one can step on her loved man, not even relatives. The ML is also made more human when he has insecurities. He does not know if MC loves him and is insecure because he knows that even if MC does not love him, he will always love her. News flash: MC loves him.

She gave money to the prostitute her fiancee ran away with and never bothered her, despite it smearing her name. When one of the girls that were jealous of her got exiled or whatever, she sent her luggage with durable and practical items for her to use.

emperor

she could just leave him and return to her maternal family. But those words were not out of lack of trust in ML, but a trust in her self. She loved him, but he wasnt her entire world. She had herself and her family too. So she was secure, and also believed that her trust in him was not wrong. She did doubt him at one point, when he was almost assassinated and the assassin blamed her, but was quickly knocked in the face by his own trust in her.

She frequently says that the ML is her man, her person, and no one can wrong him. That includes the long term friend Princess Anle (who went as far as to say Ban Hua was picking men over their friendship btch stfu), the Queen Dowager who pleaded for her son etc. She didnt want to keep hidden dangers around ML and if they made her cruel, she was cruel then

ML taking over and starting a new dynasty. ML was not the illegitimate child of the emperor nor a prince. Just an official's son with ambition and plans. In the end he took the throne and started a whole new dynasty, which we rarely see done. Too many illegitimate sons and unfavored princes rising up so it was fun to see this new version of this unrelated person being pushed to the throne by the power of the people.

He claimed to feel grateful toward the Ban family, but didnt give them justice after someone tried to kill Ban Father. Claimed to appreciate Rong Xia, made him suffer for others mistake by hitting him with a board, laying him out for months. Knew his son tried to assassinate Rong Xia and almost succeeded, did nothing about it. Knew his son was violent and hated Ban Hua, let him take power in court. Killed both Ban Huas grandfather and Rong Xias dad I believe, and was only kind to them out of guilt (maybe some affection for Ban Hua mixed in, but only because she was harmless.). Let me be honest and say if Ban family was in any way useful, theyd have died under his hands. They saved their lives by playing s*upid and being useless. If this is the way he treats people he is grateful to, I really don't want his gratitude. I'm glad he died at the end, at Rong Xias hands at that. He was incompetent and overly suspicious.

After being starved and left unable to bathe for months by his "beloved" second brother, he finally becomes disillusioned. Even voluntarily gives up the throne, with protests coming from those close to him. He was set to live a decent life thereafter. But the people around him just kept f*cking up, attempting to take revenge against ML. In the end he suffered from both his wife's and sisters actions, and got locked up alongside them. I genuinely pitied him, everybody wanted to use him for the throne or they didn't consider him when making plans, making him suffer the fallout. By the time he gained a backbone, it was too late and all that had happened, happened.

Shi Father was a d*ck that sacrificed his kids for his position. Shi Fei was just an unlovable person who probably needed therapy for the amount of hate in her heart. The Shi princess who married the prince also needed therapy, she was too power hungry and blind. She so badly wanted to be empress she even set her husband up, also she drugged him to sleep with concubines he refused to sleep with (FOR HER) just because she thought he felt some type of way about her not being able to have kids so far. Yall she was crazy. Mother Shi was useless, as useless as her son.

Shi Jin, who can only be described as a weed in cow dung, wasnt that bad compared to the rest of the family. But he wasnt that great either. He had feelings for Ban, but could never put her first. She probably wouldn't even be 5th on his list of priorities, he was so stuck on protecting that rotten family of his. Even the prince snapped out of it eventually, but Shi Jin never did. I'm so glad he never married Ban, she would have suffered because she would have been last on his list. He liked her, but not enough to do what Rong Xia did and set aside societal pressure and such to be worthy of her.

When Ban Huas grandma was about to die and she stormed into the palace, he tripped her up on her way there, but Rong Xia piggybacked her all the way, regardless of consequences. When they had evidence Shi Fei arranged Ban Fathers death, he obstructed the investigation despite thinking she did it. When Shi Fei ended up being a scape goat for the family and sent into exile, he did nothing for her. When Ban family is ransacked and held hostages (not really) he does nothing. When he is sent out onto the field to fight against the rebellion (Ban Hua and Rong Xia), he really goes and fights, and only switches sides when his father is beheaded. Yall see where I'm going here. In all of these cases, I kept expecting him to change his mind and do the right thing. I really wanted to feel bad for him and his unrequited love for Ban Hua, but he was so unworthy of her. Similar to the prince, he let his family and higher ups dictate everything, never having the courage to step up. He wasn't much better than her ex fiancee cowardly self, except he didnt ditch her. He just did absolutely nothing to help her either. Rong Xia let her thrive, Shi Jin would have buried her glow.

At first he irritated me because he was so mopey about something he himself did. But by the end he suffered and wasnt a bad person. Unlike Shi Jin, he switched sides early and saved Ban Hua from an arrow. He also didnt let Shi Fei return to the capital because of all she did. I didnt necessarily like him. But after he was blinded, his brother castrated, and his sister married to a madman, I didnt hate him either. He suffered what he shouldve in the end. Also Ban Hua treated him like the dirt beneath her shoe, she never liked him, and the Ban family never let that man go lol, so I wasn't too upset. It irks me the way he treated that s*x worker that eloped with him though. She got her revenge in the end.

sat on the throne and had one son. No concubines and the peoples lives improved.

I think the sentencing of the old queen and crown prince was pretty difficult for her since both of them were genuinely kind towards her and she also treats them as relatives. But knowing the danger they could pose and the fact that the ML let them off lightly because of her, she chose to basically imprison them at the last emperor’s tomb. I think it’s nice that she didn’t allow the ML’s feelings for her (the ML alr wanted to let them off again) or her own attachment to the old queen and crown prince to outweigh the safety and security of the ML himself.